1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a headgear for protecting a wearer from the forceful blows of participants in karate or other martial arts activities and, more particularly, to headgear designed to protect the wearer from the force of blows to the head, namely, the back and sides of the head.
2. Description of Prior Art
In martial arts activities such as karate, participants use their hands, fists, arms and feet as weapons to strike out at the other person's body or head. These blows may result in injury unless the force of the blow is lessened prior to physical contact. A reduction in the force of the blows may be achieved by participants wearing protective gear which will absorb the force of the punch. Thus, benefits of full contact practice can be obtained while the injury problem is minimized if blows can be fully delivered by the participants during the practice sessions.
Because of the strenuous activity of the wearer while using a protective device, it is a necessity for the headgear to be lightweight and cover those areas of the head requiring protection, while permitting maximum ventilation and reducing sweat collection. Furthermore, such protective headgear must allow for freedom of vision and hearing so that the user can participate in the activity intended.
Typical devices have been designed in an effort to achieve such objectives and these are adequately described in the patent literature.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,934,271; 3,992,722; and 4,058,854 disclose protective headgear unitarily molded of resilient foam and covered with a smooth tough pliable surface coating such as polyvinylchloride. The headgear are worn on a person's head and have openings conforming to the person's eyes, ears, nose, mouth and chin and are provided with a downwardly projecting flap which extends to the bottom of the neck of the wearer. In certain modifications to the headgear, removable transparent shield screens are mounted across the openings and hemispherical plates can be disposed on top of the headgear. In the '772 patent, reinforcement strips are adhered to the surface coating to reinforce the hole defining areas.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,038, a head protector is disclosed which is constructed of a body of form-molded polyurethane which surrounds the head on all sides, extending from the beginning of the neck vertebrae to the back of the head, with a bowl-shaped region covering the chin. The molded body has openings formed therein for the eyes, nose, mouth and ears and a parting slot extends from the mouth opening over the chin bowl. Two longitudinal parallel slots extend over the occipital region of the head and end at the lower edge of the molded body, forming a free strap, the free strap extending from the upper region of the molded body to the beginning of the neck vertebrae.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,305 discloses headgear fabricated of foam coated with a pliable coating. The foam is shaped as a circumferential strip adapted to encompass the head of the wearer and includes a first portion extending across the wearer's forehead, a second portion extending across the back of the wearer's head and intermediate portions extending across the sides of the wearer's head. The headgear also includes ear protectors extending downward from the intermediate portions with each ear protector, including an enlarged opening overlaying the wearer's ear, and apertures formed in the headgear adjacent the opening for relieving air pressure when a blow is delivered to the ear portion.
As illustrated above, these prior art headgear devices disclose the efforts being made in an attempt to solve the problem of designing protective lightweight economical headgear which prevent injuries in the martial arts sports. Some of these headgear cover more of the wearer's head than necessary, which restricts desired ventilation and places stress points on the neck vertebrae. Other devices unnecessarily limit the wearer's vision, hearing or freedom of movement. The present invention achieves purposes, objectives and advantages through new, useful and unobvious constructions and arrives at the device which is available at a reasonable cost through utilization of readily available materials and is a lightweight, protective unencumbering headgear.